Murray lands dream draw in Melbourne

By Nigel Graber for MurraysWorld.com on January 11, 2014, 10:04 AM

Andy Murray has been drawn against Japan's 112th-ranked Go Soeda in the first round of the Australian Open. The Scot will face the 29-year-old for the first time on Tuesday. A qualifier awaits in round two.

For Murray, not long returned from back surgery, it amounts to a dream draw as he eases his way back into circuit life. Since his lay-off began in September, Murray has played just two ATP matches, one of which was a non-event against a wildcard ranked outside the top 2000.

Murray did, however, grab a little more court time with an exhibition match against Lleyton Hewitt this Friday, which he lost in two tiebreaks. The three-time Melbourne finalist has said it would be ‘unrealistic’ to expect him to win the title this year in the wake of his operation.

If the Scot negotiates the opening rounds, the fourth seed can expect to face Roger Federer in the quarters and Rafael Nadal in the semis.

I hope this match isn't like the 2012 French Open first round in which Andy faced Tatsuma Ito, lets just say Ito wasn't exactly It. That was a horrible match, hopefully we will be spraying cans of soda everywhere in celebration of a win, because I know Andy doesn't like liquor that much.

January 11, 2014, 05:18 PMBy Connor

Why have we got two threads for this match?? This one has descended into silliness anyway.